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The era of Tech Unicorns: companies to watch in 2018

The term of Unicorns has been known only for several years, but is already one of the most used word in the tech world. So why is that? Apart from that, we will also take a look at the most well-known & the most valuable Tech Unicorns of 2017, and see the predictions for the year 2018. 

 

WHY ARE UNICORNS CALLED UNICORN? A LIST OF NEW EXPRESSIONS

 

In the business world, Unicorns are those private companies or startups with an estimated valuation of more than $1 billion. Several years ago it could be named as a myth to be a startup company with a billion dollars profit, but now it is more and more common. 

Firstly, the term was used by Aileen Lee, venture capitalist and founder of CowboyVC, a seed stage venture capital fond that is based in Palo Alto, California. In her article, “Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups“, she watched tech startups founded in the previous decade and settled the boundary lines for “Unicorn Club” members. 

Moreover, she has determined that on that time, 3 years ago, in the exclusive Unicorn club were included only 39 members,” the top .o7 % that ever reached $1 billion valuation: Dropbox, Tumblr, Facebook, Youtube, Palo Alto Networks, Yelp, FireEye, Groupon, ServiceNow, Linkedin, Gilt, etc.

However, according to Techcrunch the total number of Unicorn companies, for today, is already more than 267.

Another exciting term for your lexicon that is related to Unicorns – Decacorns,  companies that achieved a $10 billion valuation and automatically moved to the new level. 

Let’s start our list with top and most promising tech unicorns nowadays: 

 

Top 10 tech decacorns of 2017

 

Take a look at the main decacorns of 2017 according to Techcrunch:

 

  1. Uber San Francisco, California Transportation Services Valuation: $62 billion

 

  1. ANT Financial
    Xihu District, Hangzhou, China Financial services Valuation: $60 billion

 

3. Didi Chuxing

Beijing, China

Consumer Internet

Valuation: $50 billion

 

  1. Xiaomi
    Beijing, China Hardware Valuation: $45 billion

 

  1. Airbnb San Francisco Lodging Services Valuation: $31 billion

 

6. SpaceX

Howthorne, California

Aerospace and defence

Valuation: $21 billion

 

  1. Palantir  Palo Alto, California Data Analytics Software Valuation: $20 billion

 

  1. Toutiao
    Beijing, China Consumer internet Valuation: $20 billion

 

  1. Wework New York City, New York, United States Real Estate Valuation: $20 billion

 

  1. Lufax Shanghai, China Financial services Valuation: $18 billion

..and many-many others from all over the world.

 

Top 10 tech unicorns of 2017

  1. Stripe San Francisco, California, United States Financial services Valuation: $9 billion

 

  1. Spotify Stockholm, Sweden Consumer internet, music Valuation: $8 billion

 

  1. Zhong An Shanghai, China Financial services Valuation: $8 billion

 

  1. Dji Shenzhen, China Financial services Valuation: $8 billion

 

  1. Koubei Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China Search Engine Valuation: $8 billion

 

6. One97 Communications

Shenzhen, China

Financial services

Valuation: $8 billion

 

7. Cainiao Logistics

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Transportation

Valuation: $7 billion 

 

  1. Lyft Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China Transportation Valuation: $7 billion

 

9. Jiedaibao

Beijing, Beijing, China

Financial services

Valuation: $7 billion

 

10. JD Finance

Beijing, Beijing, China

Financial services

Valuation: $7 billion

 

..and many-many others from all over the world.

 

Companies that might potentially become tech unicorns in 2018?

 

I would like to mention that this list is based on latest news, ventures, investors and ratings published online. Generally, the new year is expected to be even more successful on new tech Unicorns of the year. 

This year Forbes asked venture firms which companies they thought most likely to hit the billion-dollar mark soon. Then we cut that list down to a final 10.

So who is next on the list?

 

The next billion-dollar startups or tech unicorns in 2018:

 

1.Qualtrics

Is one of the top 5 startups that probably will go public (IPO) in 2017. Qualtrics is the world’s leading research and insights platform that offers organisations a full control over their customer experience programs and collects market’s and employee’s datas.

2.AppDynamics

AppDynamics is a privately held application performance management and IT Operations Analytics company based in San Francisco. Moreover, the company was named San Francisco’s Best Technology Work Culture at the 2016 Annual Timmy Awards.

3.Docker

Every Developer knows Docker as a container service, probably one of the most popular ones. Meanwhile, Docker rose another $ million in funding.

4.Zymergen

The 3-year old biotech company that unlocks the power of biology to shape the world around us.

5.Thread

Fashion tech startup that tries to solve the problem of styling at scale. They offer you to get an expert’s help or opinion to make your style better. What is significant is that Thread plays with three things: a clever mixture of human stylists, AI assistants and tools that let both work together to deliver a semi-personalised collection of outfit ideas to every single customer.

6.Flexport

Flexport is one of those exciting startups that has great chances this year. It is a traditional freight forwarding service that arranges your goods to be transported with, providing visibility and control over your entire supply chain through software.

7.Rubrik

Named as Forbes’ Next Billion Dollars startup, Rubrik is a Cloud Data Management that delivers automated backup, instant recovery, offsite replication, and data archival in a simple, scale out platform built for hybrid cloud.

 8.OYO Rooms

An Indian virtual hospitality startup  that owns and operates as well as aggregates standardised hotel rooms, founded by Ritesh Agarwal. OYO is kind of an aggregator, like Uber. Many experts have predicted that it will be one of the next unicorns of this year.

9.DigitalOcean

A cloud computing designed for developers. The company is already named the coolest cloud startup of the year.

 

We will be posting more articles about things to keep an eye on in 2018 in terms of technology and innovation, if you are interested in it, we recommend you to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. Have a great day!

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